Shining Revelry seems to be all about EX Pokemon. While most regular Pokemon seem relatively underpowered, the new EX threats are definitely going to shake up the meta. With ranked being released today, you can expect to encounter many decks running EX Pokemon. And today I’m gonna provide you with one hell of a counter.

Meowscarada is an absolute beast. With 140 HP, her fighting claws attack deals 60 initially, unless her target is an EX Pokemon, in which case she deals 130, for just 2 energy. This is insane. For reference, Tauros was the first EX Pokemon counter we received, and his fighting tackle deals 120 to EX targets, for 3 energy. Meowscarada deals 10 more damage while requiring 1 less energy. We’ve quite simply never seen such an efficient and deadly EX punisher before.

Today’s deck combines Meowscarada with Carnivine, in a list uniting grass types' most efficient non-EX attackers. If Arceus is on the board, Carnivine is a grass type Skarmory, dealing 50 damage for just one energy with its Vine Whip. While you may have seen players combine Meowscarada with Exeggutor EX, this combination is not ideal, as you’re mixing a stage 2 evolution with a stage 1, meaning both lineups will already take up half of your deck, and you’ll be very prone to bricking. By running Meowscarada with Carnivine, you can rely on a basic pokemon that will dish out powerful attacks from the get-go, while you focus on finding your evolution pieces.

Because both these pokemon are non-EX, while we run 2 total Arceus, only 1 of them is EX. This allows us to avoid giving our opponents 2 points early, forcing them to have to take down 3 of our pokemon in order to win. Arceus EX can still represent an alternate win condition though, as we run a total of 6 basics, some games we can just have Arceus do Arceus things.

Our supporter cards are 2 copies of Leaf, 1 Cyrus and 1 Giovanni. Leaf allows us to preserve our energy when we pivot, and correct awkward openers with Arceus. Cyrus is Cyrus. While Red is a very exciting and powerful new card, Giovanni still fits this particular deck better. This is something that I eventually realized in the middle of the recording session. Giovanni allows Carnivine to one shot 60 HP basic pokemon, while also still enabling Meowscarada to one hit KO the likes of Arceus and Darkrai EX.

This deck loves to queue into EX Pokemon, and has the speed to take on other kinds of builds as well. If you want a consistent, effective version of a deck featuring Meowscarada, look no further.